Title:
Turkey Jails Istanbul Mayor Who Was Expected to Run for President
Romanian version:
[Romania Opens Criminal Case Against Ultranationalist Politician]((https://archive.is/CgbOP)
Huh. No mention of his successful run for the presidency in the first round. And an attempt to disqualify him by branding him ULTRA-nationalist. I mean, nationalism is OK, but ULTRA? C'mon man.
The mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was arrested at his home on Wednesday, four days before he was set to be named the presidential candidate of Turkey’s political opposition. He has denied the accusations against him, which Mr. Erdogan’s opponents have called a ploy to prevent a popular politician from running for president.
No such quotes in our Romanian verison. Except that the Very Bad JD Vance had cited Romania as a bad example.
The start of criminal proceedings against Mr. Georgescu, a fierce critic of NATO and the European Union, was announced by prosecutors on Wednesday. The move came just two weeks after Vice President JD Vance cited Romania in a speech at a Munich security conference as an example of what he said was Europe’s “retreat” from free speech and democracy.
And:
Critics of Mr. Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than two decades, have long accused him of using state power to undermine his rivals. But, they say, arresting a presidential contender to eliminate him from the race before it begins represents a new level of authoritarianism.
This is a glorious sentence. I've talked to neocon Americans who assure me that Russher is Very Bad because it 'invaded a neighboring country'. When asked about the Iraq War, they point out that it is not neighboring the United States, because - in their idle minds - this makes that a whole lot better, rather than worse.
In Romania, they eliminated the victorious candidate AFTER IT BEGAN! It's very different! So it's not a new level of authoritarianism.
Some European leaders have criticized the mayor’s arrest
These treasonous organized crime capos criticized the arrest of the guy who would do their bidding, while cheering the arrest of the guy who would stand against them.
and they have called on the Turkish government to uphold the rule of law.
Oh, wow, the "rule of law", eh?
There is no mention of "rule of law" in the Romanian article. I wonder why.
Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, made no mention of the mayor’s detention in an interview with the former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson that was posted on X on Saturday. But he said that Mr. Trump had recently spoken with Mr. Erdogan. The call was not made public by the White House at the time.
And now the NYT is going to mention everyone who "made no mention" about this outrage. I mean, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Were they going after Witkoff for not saying anything about Romania? No? You think the might have an agenda?
Funky Citizens, a respected pro-democracy activist group
Instead, they cited a "respected pro-democracy activist group". You know what that means: a fully-owned subsudiary and "top partner" of USAID.
I thought that Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz were terrible picks for their present positions, because that same ilk - Pompeo and Bolton - had sabotaged Trump in his first administration.
In retrospect, they were fantastic picks. It appears to me that they are helping Trump execute his policies and not theirs. I'm not persuaded by "trust Trump" or "trust the plan", considering that people who say that now bash people who wrongly trusted Trump and praised Chris Wray when he was appointed.
So I was wrong, and I really hope I continue to be wrong.
When Trump does it:
The suggestion followed a stretch of days in which Trump referred to himself as a king and quoted a dictator in suggesting that he was immune from following laws — all while his administration has continued pushing the bounds of presidential power....
In the midst of this blitz, Trump on Saturday posted on social media, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” citing a quote often attributed to the French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte
When Milley does it:
In an interview with NPR on Wednesday, airing Thursday, Milley said that while Russia has gained ground after amassing greater numbers of combat units and artillery than Ukraine, the defenders have a moral advantage over their aggressors. “The moral is to the physical as three is to one,” Milley said, quoting Napoleon Bonaparte.
The only references to Napoleon as "dictator Napoleon" are when Trump quoted them. Elsewhere, he is called by his title 'Emperor'. I guess that does not sound scary enough when Drumpf cites him. E.g.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a French connection: The agency’s forerunner was created in 1908 by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s great-nephew, Charles J. Bonaparte, when he was President Theodore Roosevelt’s attorney general.
Normally, 'dictator' means 'someone we don't like at this particular moment'. But I guess they moved the goalposts even further to 'someone it suits us to demonize for the purpose of this specific article'. But don't dare call us fake news, because that's an attack on the "free press".
Disclaimer: I used Google, not LexisNexis, which may not have found all articles, but what evidence there was speaks volumes.